. >> host: next call comes from karen in arlington, virginia. good afternoon, karen. >> caller: good afternoon. i just wanted to, first, thank anna quindlen. i always used to, used to be the first column i would look at in the paper, and um i really miss you at "the new york times." and, um, you probably had some sort of influence in my decision to go into social policy work. so thank you very much. um, i want to ask, um, what you think of, um, your female successors at "the new york times" op-ed page and, also, if you had a column to write for "the new york times"es today about the presidential election what you'd write. >> guest: well, the second part of that is an interesting question because it doesn't quite work like that. um, there's an on/off switch to being a columnist. and the on part requires you to really think about the world differently 24/7 than civilians do. in other words, you're always saving string. you see something on the street, you hear something on the subway, you read something in the paper, and it all becomes grist for t